Best Investment Apps For The Novice Investor

Investing is no longer an esoteric art reserved only for the rich and powerful or the exquisitely educated. With the use of a simple mobile app, ordinary people like you and I can become investors instantly.

Of course, a new investor has a learning curve, but these apps have made the learning process very simple. Some of the apps listed here offer investment lessons, zero-fee investing, and zero minimum deposits to open an account.

Best Overall Investment Apps

These innovations are transformative because, back in the day, investing was cumbersome. You had to read the newspapers, watch tv, or listen to the radio to get the latest stock prices.

Now, thanks to these investment apps, you can access up-to-date market information in a matter of seconds right on your smartphone.

Here are the apps that are revolutionizing the investment scene.

1. Robinhood

Robinhood is an investment brokerage app that provides free stock investing services to its members.

When Robinhood first came on the scene, pundits were skeptical about its “free” business model. They couldn’t understand how the company would make money while offering its core product for free.

So far, Robinhood has weathered the storm and is a disruptive force in the mobile investment app space.

With Robinhood, the investor has full stock market access to trade stocks, Exchange-traded Funds (ETF), Options, and Cryptocurrencies.

But free stock trading is not Robinhood’s only business model. It also offers a $5 a month premium subscription called Robinhood Gold.

Robinhood Gold gives you access to professional investment research and level 2 market data from Morningstar and Nasdaq, respectively. It also allows a higher instant deposit from your investment account to your bank account, and gives access to investing on margin.

Robinhood also allows micro-investing, sometimes called fractional investing. This is a process whereby an investor, rather than buying an entire stock, opts to buy a fraction of it. For instance, you can’t afford to buy a whole Amazon stock for $3,000 so you buy a fraction of it for $20.

Micro investing is good because democratizes the investing landscape and gives access to people aren’t necessarily rich.

Finally, the Robinhood app also comes with a fully functional bank account. The Robinhood bank account gives you a checking account that comes equipped with a debit card. With the checking account, members can easily transfer money between their bank account and their investment account.

Cons Of Using Robinhood

• The free version of Robinhood does not offer access to research. However, Robinhood Gold, which costs $5 a month, does.
• Quotes are usually a few minutes delayed. It does not appear to be live.

Conclusion

Robinhood is excellent for the beginner investor. It allows you to buy shares without paying a fee for each trade. Robinhood Gold is more appropriate for the experienced investor. It comes with detailed reports that a new investor may find intimidating.

2. Stash

Stash is an investing, banking, and saving app. It has over three million U.S customers who save and invest with the Stash app.

Stash’s biggest claim to fame is that unlike other investment apps, it gives its customers the option to buy fractional shares and Exchange Traded Funds (EFT). Stash is by no means primarily a micro-investing app but it has made the option available to its customers.

The significance of this feature is that if you don’t have all the money to buy an Amazon stock, for example, you can buy a fraction of it for just $5.

In addition to investment and savings accounts, Stash also offers retirement accounts for adults and custodial accounts for kids under 18 years old. The custodial accounts will of course be co-owned by an adult.

Stash also provides educational financial literature for its members at no additional cost. However, unlike Robinhood, which offers free investing accounts, Stash charges a monthly fee beginning at $1 a month for a small account under $5k.

You can open an account with Stash right here. The Stash app also offers a checking account that syncs with your investment account.

Related: Passive Income: Beginner’s Guide To Making Money While Asleep

Cons of Using Stash

• It charges a monthly service fee for all its accounts.
• Stash does not offer a wide variety of financial products.

3. Acorns

Acorns has over 5 million people investing on its platform. That’s a lot of people.

One thing that distinguishes Acorns from the competition is its emphasis on spare change investing. In addition to that, Acorns’ checking account, which comes equipped with a debit card, is also a strong selling point for the app.

The debit card is significant because the Acorns’ spare change investing feature relies on using it or a linked debit card. For instance, if you bought something for $14.65, Acorns will round the purchase up to $15 and invest the $0.35 change. But this can only work if you’re using your Acorns debit card or a linked debit card from another bank.

Acorns members also have access to experts who can help customize their investment portfolio and personalize it to their needs.

Cons Of Using Acorns

• Acorns charge $1, $2, and $3 respectively for various tiers of their service.
• Acorns has a simplistic interface that does not provide enough information about company stocks.

Sign up for Acorns right here.

4. Qapital

Qapital is an investment app that offers similar services as Acorns. Just like Acorns, Qapital also has a banking component alongside its investment services.

Launched in 2015, Qapital has offices in both Stockholm and New York. It has acquired hundreds of thousands of customers all over the United States.

Some of the services that Qapital offers in addition to its investment services are Payday Divvy, and Spending Sweet Spot. Payday Divvy lets you put money aside for your expenses while Spending Sweet Spot provides budgeting functionalities.

Qapital bank accounts are FDIC insured and comes equipped with a Qapital Visa debit card.

Cons of Qapital

• No interest earned on savings, and no phone access to customer service
• Charges between $3 and $12 for various tiers of its service

5. Sofi

Sofi offers a comprehensive array of financial solutions to its customers. It provides investment, banking, and a variety of loan services.

Sofi Invest, which is the investment arm of Sofi, offers customers the ability to trade stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). Sofi also offers automated investing in addition to do-it-yourself active investing.

Automated Investing is a good option because it makes it easy for inexperienced investors to operate an investment account on autopilot.

One of the strong selling points for Sofi Invest is that there are no management or transaction fees for stock trades.

Con of Using Sofi

• Sofi Invest is relatively new, and the options are limited
• Sofi’s core business seems to be loans (i.e., home and student loans) rather than investment.

6. Stockpile

Stockpile stock trading and investing app is an app that allows people to buy fractional shares at the cost of $0.99 per trade.

In addition to traditional investing, the company allows people to purchase fractional shares in the form of gift cards, which can either be printed at home, sent by email or sent as an e-gift card.

You don’t need an account with Stockpile to purchase a gift card. Having this option is revolutionary because it can be used to introduce kids to investing.

The option to buy fractional shares minimizes the risk associated with investing because instead of buying one share for $200, investors can buy ten fractional shares for $20 each. This method allows them to spread the risk factor over many different stocks.

Stockpile also provides investment lessons to help new investors understand the investment landscape. This makes the learning curve less steep.

Stockpile also offers custodial accounts that kids can open under the guidance of an adult.

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Con of Using Stockpile

• Stockpile charges for every single trade. Other platforms like Robinhood doesn’t.

7. Ally Invest

Ally Invest, a brainchild of Ally Bank, is an online trading platform for trading stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and margin accounts.

It provides detailed market research and the ability to place trades from any device, be it a computer, tablet or mobile phone.

The ability to place a trade from any device is significant because the price of a stock can change in a matter of seconds. If you can’t get to your computer to place a trade, you can do it on your mobile phone.

Ally Invest also allows margin accounts. These are accounts that will enable the investor to borrow funds to invest, using the securities in their account as collateral.

Con Of Using Ally Invest

• Ally Invest has a standard pricing of $4.95 and select pricing of $3.95 for trading stocks. This is a con because other platforms like Robinhood offer free trades while others charge a flat-rate monthly fee.

8. TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade is a trading platform that provides a vast array of financial products. You can trade stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETF), options, mutual funds, futures, forex, margin trading, cryptocurrency trading, bonds, and fixed income, annuities, IPO, managed portfolios, cash management, and dividend reinvestment.

So far, TD Ameritrade offers more financial instruments than all the other trading apps mentioned here.

Founded in 1971, TD Ameritrade is one of the biggest online brokers with over $1.2 trillion in client assets.

TD Ameritrade also offers valuable market research to help investors make informed decisions about their portfolios.

Con of using TD Ameritrade

• For a new investor, TD Ameritrade’s platform can be overwhelming.
• TD Ameritrade charges at least $6.95 per online equity trade.

9. Wealthfront

Wealthfront is a Robo advisor that provides automated investment services. It is one of the newer investment apps on the market.

Though Wealthfront started in 2008, which is earlier than some of the investment apps listed here, it started mostly as a mutual fund analysis company.

Then in 2012, Wealthfront started tax-loss harvesting, a process whereby securities are sold at a loss to offset a capital gains tax liability.

Wealthfront grew steadily over the years and is now a full-fledge investment brokerage company with over $11 billion in assets under management.

Wealthfront promises a software-only approach to investing that allows its customer to invest in a globally diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds.

Wealthfront also promises a tax-loss harvesting strategy that helps its customers pay less in taxes.

Wealthfront’s platform emphases passive investing, a process whereby investing is done automatically with the help of intuitive software.

Con of Using Wealthfront

• Wealthfront charges an annual advisory fee of 0.25% on total assets under management. If you are a big investor, this amount adds up.
• Wealthfront does not allow the purchase of fractional shares.

10. M1 Finance

M1 Finance is a Robo advisor investment app that allows customers to invest automatically in a custom stock and ETF portfolio.

They also offer customers a checking and savings account, which makes it easy to fund or defund their investment accounts.

Just like other investment apps, M1 Finance also allows the purchase of fractional shares, thereby making portfolio diversification easy and affordable.

One of the selling points that set this investment app apart from the competition is that they offer free trading. This means there are no management fees, no trading fees, and no commissions.

Customers can also open joint investment trading accounts, Roth ira retirement accounts, as well as a checking account that pays 1.5% APY, over 18 times the national average.

Con of using M1 Finance

• M1 Finance offers limited investment products. For instance, it doesn’t allow the trading of mutual funds.
• They do not have an active trading option. Trading is automatic.
• Tax-loss harvesting is not available on the platform.

11. Betterment

Betterment is an online investment company that brands itself as an online financial advisor. It offers multiple financial products, including a savings account, stock investment account, Roth IRA, and Trust management.

Founded in 2008, Betterment has over $16 billion in assets under management. That’s impressive for such a relatively young company.

Betterment also has auto-deposit and tax loss harvesting features.

Con of Using Betterment

• Betterment is a Robo advisor. It is not ideal for active investing

12. E-Trade

E-Trade is one of the more prominent online investment apps and websites. They offer an array of financial assets to include stocks, futures, options, ETF, bonds, and CDs as well as prebuilt portfolios.

They also offer various kinds of IRA, including Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, as well as an IRA for minors.

E-Trade has been around since 1982. They are much bigger and very popular with investors. With over 4.9 million brokerage accounts, E-trade is one of the top-tier investment apps on the market right now.

In addition to its multiple investment products, E-Trade also provides banking services to its customers. You can open a fully functional checking and savings account, as well as a line of credit.

Cons of using E-Trade

• Trading fees are relatively high.

Conclusion

Because there are many excellent investment apps on the market today, Investors — from beginners to professionals — will have no problem choosing an investment app that meets their needs. It all comes down to personal preference, investment goals, and style of investing.

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